March 19, 2017, Sunday -- Meet an Extraordinary Man This Week in Washington D.C. Meet an Extraordinary Archbishop this Week in Washington D.C. "His name is Thaddeus" An extraordinary archbishop got on an airplane today in the the former East bloc to fly to Washington D.C. He will land in D.C. tonight. His name is Thaddeus [...]
February 28, 2017, Tuesday -- "Not flesh and blood" "Francis received in audience this morning... - H. E. Abp. Guido Pozzo, Titular Archbishop of Bagnoregio, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei..." —from the official Vatican Press Office Bulletin of February 27, 2017, that is, yesterday (link); Archbishop Guido Pozzo, the head of the Vatican's Ecclesia [...]
February 24, 2017, Tuesday -- Pilgrimage Toward a Hidden God Pilgrimage Toward A Hidden God A powerful contemporary intellectual movement today called “transhumanism” hopes the human race can be developed, improved, “transcended.” Christians share part of this hope, but by means of an entirely different process… By Robert Moynihan Each man desires to know his true [...]
February 7, 2017, Tuesday -- The New York Times and Steve Bannon "Vatican Traditionalists See Hero in Trump Aide." —Headline of a New York Times front-page article today (link) which argues that "Vatican Traditionalists" see US President Donald Trump's top aide and "strategic advisor," the Irish American Catholic and former Breitbart News executive Steve Bannon, as [...]
February 6, 2017, Monday -- Posters against the Pope "Ah, Franky [referring to Pope Francis using a Roman dialect form of Francis which suggests great familiarity], you've put Congregations under supervision, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate and ignored Cardinals... But where in all this is your compassion?" —Words [...]
January 31, 2017, Tuesday -- "The flower of mankind" "Our forefathers... were able to bequeath to us a Church and a civilization that really is the flower of mankind." — Steve Bannon, top advisor to US President Donal Trump, in 2014, speaking from Los Angeles to a Vatican conference on global poverty and on how best [...]
January 31, 2017, on the Knights of Malta... I left off my last report, on the complicated and tumultuous story of the Knights of Malta (Letter #5 this year) with a "to be continued." I would like to write more, but at this moment there is not much that can be said. We know this: Grand [...]
January 26, 2017, Wednesday -- Knights of Malta and Freemasonry, #2 "One of the difficulties with the Order (of Malta) is that there is a split between those like Matthew Festing who regard the Order as a religious institution doing charitable work in the light of the teachings of the Church and others who would like [...]
January 25, 2017, Wednesday -- Knights of Malta and Freemasonry "Charybdis was a sea monster in Greek mythology, which dwelt in the Strait of Messina. It was later rationalized as a whirlpool. It was believed that Charybdis lived under a rock on one side of the strait. Opposite Charybdis, Ancient Greeks believed there was another sea [...]
January 22, 2017, Sunday -- On Trump, Francis Waits On the dangers -- and need for -- populist movements Pope Francis has granted another long interview, this time to two Spanish journalists writing for the daily El Pais of Madrid, Spain. The interview was conducted on Friday, January 20, in the Domus Santa Marta, where the [...]